The present invention relates generally to rotational members carrying bearing structures adjacent the periphery thereof, and particularly to an arrangement adapted to supply such bearing structures with a lubricating mist.
An example of apparatus utilizing peripherally located bearing structures or units are machines designed to coil an elongated strand of material, such machines employing a large, horizontally disposed, rotatable disc or flyer, a detailed description of such machines and their operation being described hereinafter. When the disc or flyer rotates at relatively high speeds, the peripherally located bearing units are subject to substantial centrifugal force, the formula for such force being the well known F = Wv.sup.2 /gR. Heretofore, however, the rotational speeds of flyers have not been relatively high, and the bearing structures have been sealed units packed with grease, the weight of the grease in each sealed unit being taken into account, along with the weight of the bearing structure itself and an associated sheave or pulley, in balancing the flyer to provide a smoothly rotatable device. With the lower peripheral velocity accompanying conventional, low rotational speeds (on the order of 250 rpms for 30 inch diameter flyer), the grease has tended to remain in the bearing units such that the loss of the grease was not a significant problem. For this reason bearing failures were not common, and the resulting unbalance of the flyer, due to the change in mass occurring with the loss of grease, was not a common occurrence.
However, with the event of the increase in rotational speeds (870 rpm, for example for a 30 inch diameter flyer) for the purpose of increasing the production of coiled wire, which results in lower unit costs, the loss of grease from the bearing units has become a problem (keeping in mind the above formula in which the centrifugal force increases with the square of rotational velocity) resulting in regular bearing failure and unbalance of the rotating flyer.
In addition, lubricating greases are a mechanical suspension of ingredients which tend to separate under high centrifugal action such that their lubricating capabilities are destroyed. This has been another cause of bearing failure in devices subjecting bearings to high centrifugal forces.